Antelope Canyon

Oh my, what a day! We spent the morning looking at the Glencanyon Dam and the Lake Powell that it formed when it was built in 1956. The town of a Page grew up then to house the workers as this chosen site on the Colorado River was far away from anything. It provides hydroelectric power to 7 states and some of Mexico, but the drought is having a big effect... there is a movement to do away with it , let the Colorado flow normally...and perhaps uncover some of the ancient native sites. Probably won’t happen

Then this afternoon was almost a stupid disaster, our Adventurous Antelope photo/family ( tripods required) tour was at 2:30... we got there close to 2:00 and were told it was cancelled for us because we had to be there 45 minutes early!! Yes, it said that on the reverse of my confirmation but I missed it. EEK, So we did manage to sign up quickly for a regular tourist tour that was leaving immediately.. no tripods. Ok, better than nothing. WELL.... it turns out we were put with Raymond, a Navajo who was present at the beginning of this Navajo company in 2002, but now works at a very fancy hotel. But today one vehicle was broken, so he was called in to help out.... so 4 of us ( a young couple from Barcelona) got to ride in his suv with AC over the desert sands ( instead of open air cars in this 98 degree heat! ) And it just happened that he is a photographer , has worked with natl geo, and was delighted with playing with my camera and teaching me tips about photographing this sandstone slot canyon. !! I have some fine photos but just love the abstract orange and purples ( he fiddled with white balance) and need my computer later to fiddle with some I bracketed for hdr. It’s too late in the year for the columns of light and parts were really dark, but he took some cool pix of us. But the extra is the prize of all!!! At the beginning, Raymond took my iPhone (!) and took this vertical panorama. I think it’s amazing but couldn’t use it as the blip since it’s his. ( he got a nice tip). Not sure how we lucked out, but I think we did better than the tour I messed up! Wow.
Now out to dinner...